


Salmon Skins and Formaldehyde

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Series: The Way Back to Happiness [1]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21984514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: Taiga decides to eat out for once and accidentally walks into one of Kiriya's favorite restaurants.
Relationships: Hanaya Taiga & Kujou Kiriya
Series: The Way Back to Happiness [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1595947
Comments: 14
Kudos: 15





	Salmon Skins and Formaldehyde

**Author's Note:**

> A little interlude between episodes 4 and 5

Taiga was beat. He should go home and rest, but he _really_ wasn't looking forward to going back to the hospital and eating another bowl of crunched up ramen with the flavor pack shaken in. He had enough money to buy better food or eat out, but he just... couldn't find the energy to do that, most days. Even the mere idea of cooking seemed like a monumental task sometimes.

He opted for wandering around until he felt like eating or going back and just sleeping hungry. By the time Taiga was considering looking for the nearest 7/11, he passed a small teishoku restaurant and couldn't help but feel drawn in. It'd been so long since he had a decent meal, and he was feeling good enough for the small amounts of interaction needed to order a meal and maybe a beer. The place didn't look too crowded, and it was just a surly-looking older man working behind the bar when he peeked in. Quiet enough to make him feel comfortable fully entering. He sat down at the far side of the bar and ordered a grilled salmon set.

It wasn't long after he settled in, just absorbing the soothing atmosphere of this place when chaos struck.

And by chaos, he meant Lazer walking through the door and loudly greeting the chef as he passed by and went in for a hug. The chef barked at him to calm down and wait because he was carrying sizzling trays of steak and fish to a table near the front. So, Lazer abandoned the hug in favor of scanning the restaurant for a place to sit. Taiga noticed his eyes linger on a certain spot at the bar, must've been his usual seat, before they landed on him, making eye contact.

Taiga tried to turn away as quickly as possible, but it was too late. He noticed the corner of Lazer's mouth quirk up as he made his way over.

Taiga's face scrunched in disgust at the prospect of dealing with Lazer tonight. Doubly so when Lazer got close enough for the chemical stench of formaldehyde to fill the air. "Oh, you really do work in forensics."

"Huh?" Lazer looked down at himself before sniffing at his clothes and making a face. "Ah, yeah. I guess I need to start remembering to bring spare clothes again."

Rolling his eyes, Taiga moved his arm to allow Lazer to sit next to him.

"I didn't even believe you worked at Seito."

"What, you think I'm faking having a medical degree?"

Taiga just raised an eyebrow, glaring at Lazer even harder.

"Kiriya!" The voice of the store owner broke the tension as he solidly clapped a hand on Lazer's shoulder.

"Hey there, boss!" Lazer grinned and looked up at the guy.

Taiga growled, Lazer had a friend here, so he couldn't just start a fight or take him out behind the restaurant and kill him now. Not when he'd be missed.

"What can I get you?" The shop owner asked as he moved behind the counter, sharpening his knife with deft strokes.

"Whatever he's having." Lazer grinned, pointing at Taiga with his thumb.

Taiga glared at him out of the corner of his eye.

"This a friend of yours?" The shop owner looked between them skeptically.

"Yup!" Lazer wrapped an arm around Taiga's shoulders, who promptly shrugged him off. "We're like, best buddies, aren't we, Hanaya?"

The owner chuckled and shook his head. "You want the usual with that?"

"Yup! You know me so well, boss." He replied with a smile.

Eventually the chef came back with their meals, Taiga blinking in surprise when he saw Lazer's drink of choice was a can of soda. He placed the bottle of beer and soda down respectively and went to attend to some other customers.

"What?" Lazer tried to look defensive as he popped the soda tab, but his dumb grin kept getting in the way. As if he was amused by Taiga's disgust in his choice of drinks. His irritable expression only intensified as Lazer laughed and said, "I don't like bitter-tasting things!"

Taiga decided to not even deign that with a response and started eating. Lazer continued looking at him like he wanted to say something, but seemed to think better of it and focused on his meal.

Good.

Taiga ripped the skin off his salmon and put it aside. Almost immediately, he felt Lazer's eyes on him again and he growled. Lazer's gaze continued to dart between the discarded skin and him, but he turned back to start tearing into his meal. They ate in relatively companionable silence, but as Taiga was starting to slow down, he noticed Lazer's eyes on the salmon skin again.

"Can I help you with something?" He raised an eyebrow at him pointedly.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Lazer gestured to the abandoned skin with his chopsticks.

"No, I don't really like the skin." Taiga rolled his eyes as Lazer made a noise as if Taiga assaulted him. He was dangerously close to actually doing so if Lazer kept talking to him.

"You serious? That's the best part!" He barely had time to think of a response to that before Lazer was reaching over to his plate and snatching the skin away.

Taiga watched in a mix of fascination and annoyance as Lazer took a big, satisfied crunch out of the stolen food.

"Really?" he deadpanned.

Lazer just raised his eyebrows. "What?" he said after swallowing.

"You're not even gonna ask?"

"You said you weren't gonna eat it!"

"A 'hey, can I grab this from your plate' or something like that would've been nice. Jeez, it's like you were raised in a barn or something."

"Hey, can I take this since you're not gonna eat it?" Lazer said around a mouthful of food.

"What are you? Five?" Taiga leered.

"Six, actually." Lazer swallowed, then snickered at his own non-joke.

Taiga fought the urge to roll his eyes again and huffed. "Seriously, what if you're infected with something? If you get me sick because your chopsticks were all over my food, I'll find you and kill you."

Lazer shot him a knowing smile. "I think, as Kamen Riders," he murmured, "we all have a little _something,_ if you know what I mean."

"So you know what the compatibility surgery really is."

"I mean, I feel like it's pretty obvious, if you're gonna fight a disease, make sure your doctors are vaccinated. Right?" Lazer gestured to Taiga's hair with his chopsticks. "Plus, it'd be rude to get my hands on your records, but I'm pretty sure they would say you never had poliosis, meaning it's a symptom of you-know-what. If I can trust my sources, of course."

Taiga narrowed his eyes. Something told him Lazer would have absolutely no moral problems with getting his hands on any and all information he could get about any of the other Riders, by whatever means possible. "What sources?"

Lazer's demeanor turned a little playful and he just smiled coyly. "Well, you just confirmed I work in forensics earlier, let's see if you can figure it out."

Taiga fought the urge to just take Lazer outside and slam him up against a wall and demand what he knew, sighing heavily instead. Lazer signaled to the shop owner and he came over for Lazer to order another dish, meaning he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Taiga would have to play this dumb game with him. It was a smart, but annoying move.

He could always leave. But, depending on who Lazer's information sources were, that could be threatening to Taiga. He definitely looked like someone who could have yakuza connections. As much as he hated it, he was locked into this logic puzzle until he solved it or Lazer left and he could try and intimidate him in a less public setting.

First off, forensics... Taiga didn't really know anyone who worked in the forensics department during his time at Seito. Radiology would sometimes work with people from the morgue, but Taiga only dealt with living patients, leaving forensic radiology to other doctors. His brain briefly turned to his traumatic experience with the dead at Seito, but he quickly pushed the thoughts aside, trying to refocus on the problem.

The chef returned with Lazer's second order, and Taiga expected him to take his time with it. Draw it out so Taiga would be forced to figure out his connections or give up and leave. But to his surprise, Lazer eagerly dug into the rice bowl topped with grilled eel. Maybe he really was just hungry. Taiga was briefly distracted by how much food this tiny ass man was putting away. It was a wonder how he wasn't any taller or bigger based on how he ate. 

Maybe Taiga's stomach couldn't handle too much food after years of surviving on small meals or just not eating, he thought as he observed his own half-finished tray. God, he'd really acquired an old man's taste, the only things he completely ate were the pickled vegetables and soup. After gawking at Lazer's appetite for another moment, Taiga got back to theorizing how Lazer knew about him from before Zero Day.

Well, now it was apparent that Lazer worked at Seito while Taiga was still there, maybe he was finishing up his internship at that time. And he was obviously still working there since Taiga could still smell his job on him. While Taiga was at Seito, he tried to be polite to everyone, so he wasn't necessarily close to anyone except—

Maki...

"You knew Maki?" Taiga breathed, and Lazer made a face for a moment like he couldn't decipher what was happening with Taiga's tone and face. To be fair, Taiga wasn't even sure what he was feeling. Saying his name again after so long...

Taiga felt dirty. Like he didn't even deserve to talk about him after he just watched him disappear like that.

"Not personally, but I have a friend who worked with him a lot," Lazer said softly, drawing Taiga's focus.

"The guy you brought in that was infected with Bugster?"

Lazer nodded slightly. "Nisshi's our usual forensic pathologist, but sometimes he'd call your buddy in."

Something about the way Lazer danced around saying Maki's name made something click for Taiga. It was like he knew how painful the subject of losing someone like that was. Sure he worked in the morgue and probably dealt with grieving family and friends, but something about him right now felt raw and hurt.

"What about you? I'm sure you wouldn't be in this game if you didn't lose someone too."

Lazer's smile died a fraction. "I'm just in the game to figure out how the Bugsters work and how to destroy them, same as you minus the vengeance motive. What, you don't believe me?"

"The playing dumb act might work on those idiots at CR, but people don't infect themselves and risk their lives fighting monsters out of curiosity. So why?"

Lazer put his arms through his jacket sleeves and stood. Taiga's eyes flickered down to the rice bowl and bugged out to see it mostly empty, save a few grains of rice stubbornly clinging to the sides.

"I'm in forensics, shoving myself into others' business to solve mysteries is what I do," Lazer said flippantly, avoiding eye contact.

He slapped down way too much money for the meal and walked off, the scents of formaldehyde and salmon gusting past Taiga's face in his wake.

"See you around, Hanaya." He winked before ducking out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> In Mighty Novel X, they mentioned that Taiga's fear of ghosts came from something he saw at Seito when he was still working there, which is what "Taiga's traumatic experience with the dead" is referencing.
> 
> Also, this fic was inspired by episode one of Wakakozake, which is a wonderful anime if you love food. I highly recommend checking it out!
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!


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